


Baking Lessons

by VigilantShadow



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Barry's not here, Domestic, F/F, F/M, Fluff, I don't know a thing about baking pies so sorry in advance to all bakers, I guess I technically mention Highport/Davenchurch but only if you squint really hard, New Relationship, The Lupjeans is just background bc Lup's poly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-18
Updated: 2017-04-18
Packaged: 2018-10-20 18:07:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10667991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VigilantShadow/pseuds/VigilantShadow
Summary: Lucretia wants to learn to bake, so Lup shows her how to make pie. Just a little fluff based off a prompt request that got longer than I thought it would. Spoilers really hard for ep 59 (duh, like, Lup's there), and kind of hard for 60.





	Baking Lessons

“I’d like to learn to bake,” Lucretia said one morning as she cornered Lup outside of her bedroom on The Starblaster. She seemed deadly serious, so much so that Lup almost cracked a joke about lightening up, but in the past few years she’d gotten good enough at reading the other woman’s body language to notice the way Lucretia’s fingers curled in a death grip around one of her many journals. 

“Any reason this is coming up now, sweetcheeks?” Lup asked, and hoped she didn’t imagine the blush at the nickname.

“Well,” Lucretia answered, her voice cracking a bit before she managed to gather her confidence, “I thought that it might help. With the journaling, I mean. It’s hard to write about things I don’t know, and cooking is something you and Taako love, so knowing something about it would make my accounts more authentic.”

That’s the most Lucretia answer Lup had ever heard, and she couldn’t stop herself from laughing at that. Lucretia definitely blushed at that, her head ducked as if to hide in her journal. Shit. Lucretia must not have realized that was the laugh Lup reserves for things she was fond of.

“Hey, no, don’t worry ‘Cretia. That’s just the cutest thing I’ve heard since we got to this reality. Sure, I can teach you how to make some sweetass baked goods. I was actually going to make a pie when you ran into me. Wanna help?”

Lucretia brightened, and Lup couldn’t bring herself to regret losing one of the few moments of quality Lup time she’d managed to fit into her schedule. A ship as big as The Starblaster should have felt empty with only seven people, but her colleagues and especially her brother had a way of feeling full. Usually Lup enjoyed that, but sometimes she just wanted to sneak into a room by herself and think of sick spells while chopping ingredients. 

Lucretia trailed after Lup into the kitchen, looking bewildered as Lup threw an apron over her head. Lup took a look at her, wide eyed and wearing an apron that Taako had monogrammed “HEAD BITCH IN CHARGE”, and almost lost her shit laughing. Lup began to realize that she often almost lost her shit laughing, which was usually on brand for her but seemed to make Lucretia nervous. Swallowing down the humor of it, she started digging through the cabinets for ingredients.

“You know, I’m glad Ole Captain Davy packed a lot of supplies before we left,” she said as she chucked pie tins and rollers onto the counter. “The last couple of realities were fun and all, but I wish we could find some world that sold real baking supplies, ya dig?”

Lucretia let out a noise that may have been one of agreement.

“Course, you have to wonder why he thought we’d need all this stuff,” Lup continued, crouching down in front of the cupboard where she knew Taako stashed the good sugar, “this whole shindig wasn’t meant to last this long, was it?”

“Captain Davenport likes to be prepared. It’s what makes him such a good commander,” Lucretia said. Lup shrugged, pulling out the sought after ingredient and plunking it down on the counter beside all of her other treasures.

“If it means I get to bake pies without having to pull some ludicrous hundred year mission rationing, I’ll be glad.”

“This mission won’t last a hundred years.”

“I sure hope it doesn’t. Alright. Let’s make some sweet sweet pastries.” Lup opened the top of the flour and began pouring it into the bowl, keeping an eye on the levels as she addressed Lucretia, “Now you’re supposed to measure this shit, but I’m pro so I don’t need to do that. You want, like, two cups of this,” she grabbed the salt shaker, “a teaspoon of that, and then some butter. Like. A cup of butter. Something like that.” She looked up. Lucretia was nodding, her pens moving furiously in two journals. Lup slid the bowl over to her, “you mix it.”

Lucretia took the bowl as if it were something delicate. Lup resisted the urge to reach over and change her grip on the spoon, instead watching her as she figured it out for herself. As with most things, Lucretia picked it up quickly.

“This is more difficult than you make it look,” Lucretia mused as she stirred the dough.

“Practice makes perfect, and perfect is the Lup Aesthetic,” Lup said, putting on her most stunning smile. Lucretia blushed again. She got back to stirring until the dough was about the right texture and Lup took back the spoon.

“What now?”

“Rolling time, my dude.” Lup brandished the rolling pin like a sword. Lucretia laughed, a sound Lup resolved to encourage more often.

“So I just roll it?”

“Uh, sorta? You gotta roll it till it gets to about as thick as you’d want a pie crust to be. Don’t go too hard on it, though.” Somehow, Lup didn’t think Lucretia was the type to go too hard on pie crust. “First we gotta flour up the counter so the dough doesn’t get all sticky.”

Lucretia nodded, her hand twitching as if to grab the pen tucked in the apron pocket.

“I can tell you this again when we’re done if you’re worried about forgetting it before you can write things down,” Lup said. Lucretia startled.

“No, I’m just…used to notation.”

“Hey, no problem with that. I’d be telling you to write away if not for the fact that rolling pins take a hand or two.” Of course, that sent Lup’s brain down a tangent about using levitation magics in cooking, but if she brought up that topic she figured this pie baking session would turn into a debate on arcana which was too much nerd for the early morning. Instead, she handed Lucretia the flour and the other woman tried her best to gently tilt it over on the wooden cutting board.

Lucretia let out a squeak as the bag slipped from her hand, letting out a mushroom cloud of flour as it collided with the cutting board. The white powder settled over her like too much snow, and Lup couldn’t keep down her laughter this time. Lucretia shook herself off, depositing the flour in a pile on the floor. A bit hung in the air, however. Lucretia breathed in. Lucretia sneezed.

Lup cackled.

“I’m not very good at this,” Lucretia sighed, her white-tipped nose wrinkling. Lup considered resisting the urge to lean in and plant a kiss on Lucretia’s nose. Lup was not the sort of person that resisted urges.

“Oh,” Lucretia said, blinking.

“Did I read the room wrong?” Lup didn’t think she had. Lucretia had been blushing around Lup all week, and it hadn’t seemed like a platonic sort of blushing.

“N-no,” Lucretia said, her hands flexing for her pen again. “I just thought you and Barry-“

Lup raised an eyebrow. “Honey, Barry doesn’t have a problem with me making friends,” she added an emphasis to that last word and hoped Lucretia would pick up on it, “after all, there’s plenty of Lup to go around.”

“Oh,” Lucretia said again, blinking even harder. She spun, pulling a pen from one of her pockets and reaching for a journal. Lup watched as she scribbled away in the book for a few minutes. Then, she seemed to realize that silence had fallen and looked up. “Sorry, I was just updating my bond charts.”

“Your bond charts…” Lup started, her grin somehow growing even wider. “Oh my gosh, why do I keep crushing on nerds?”

Lucretia shrugged, turning her journal around for Lup to see. Across two of the pages, Lucretia had drawn each of the IPRE members with the sort of realism Lup wouldn’t have thought possible for a sketch in pen. Their faces were positioned in a circle, with ruler-straight lines of varying colors and thicknesses passing between them.

“I thought that since the ship is powered by bonds it would be prudent to keep track of our resources,” Lucretia smiled at the book. “I also like puzzles, and people are some of the hardest puzzles out there.”

Lup laughed. “You’re telling me!”

She looked closer at the lines, noting the thickest one which ran between her and Taako in black ink. The two of them were drawn next to each other, and seemed to be sharing a mischievous glance. _“We’re kind of a unit, dude, - Taako”_ was written atop the line in Lucretia’s small handwriting. A black line ran to the bottom of the circle from Taako’s picture, and a red from her’s, down to Barry’s sheepishly smiling face. “ _Hard to tell what they’re talking about, I should really learn that language they use,”_ was written next to the point where the two lines intersected above Barry’s head. There was a line between Merle and Davenport which shimmered between black and red and blue, as well as several question marks and a “ _They’re always going on field trips. What do they talk about? I can’t tell how they feel.”_ In new, bright red ink, there was a very tentative line between Lup and Lucretia’s portrait.

Lup tapped her lip with one finger and, after a moment, reached out and touched the pen in Lucretia’s hand.

“May I?” She asked. Lucretia raised an eyebrow, but handed it over. Now that she had it in her hand, Lup saw that the pen was black, but had multiple buttons on the side. She pressed the red one and then, moving carefully so she did not ruin the straightness of the line, darkened the new mark ever so slightly. Lucretia’s eyes widened. “If I’m wrong about the feelings on your side I’ll burn a spell slot to lighten it up, but I’m feeling a little bit more connection than that first line. So, what say you and me finish this pie and work on,” Lup winked, “some bonding.”

Lucretia giggled, an undignified noise that had her hand coming up to cover her mouth. “What does that even mean?” She asked.

“I mean I found Magnus’ secret stash of Fantasy Action Films and I’ve been waiting the right time for a movie night. I’ve always found pie tastes better when you’re having fun while eating it. I mean, everything does, but especially pie because pie’s pretty damn baller.”

“That sounds good,” Lucretia said. A smile spread across her face. “That sounds…great.”

Lup smiled back, putting the pen back into Lucretia’s hand and picking up the rolling pin.

“Alright then, let’s bake ourselves a pie.”

 


End file.
